IPAC to Governor Otu of Cross River State: Stop making empty promises and do something about the kidnapping problem

The senior pastor of the Word Alive Church in Calabar, Rev. Mike Obiora, and his daughter were kidnapped yesterday evening, prompting Cross River State’s chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Anthony Attah, to urge Governor Bassey Otu to do more than simply promise to arrest the perpetrators.

You may remember that two weeks ago, Governor Otu dropped hints that he was planning to purchase cutting-edge equipment capable of tracking down kidnappers across the entire state. He added that Otu was prepared to apply the state’s existing statute on kidnapping, which calls for death by hanging, in an effort to curb the rising flood of kidnappings and violent robberies in the state.

Gertrude Njar, a commissioner in Ayade’s government, was kidnapped and held for 35 days until a large ransom was paid.

The Nigerian Medical Association in Cross River also reported that 14 of its members had been abducted in the state over the course of five years, lamenting the lack of progress in securing the safe return of Neurologist, Prof. Ekanem Ephraim of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, who had been abducted on July 13, 023.

Attah told kuryaloaded exclusively, “Kidnapping has become a recurring decimal in both the state capital and in the hinterlands, and the government has always maintained a well-rehearsed position.”

To paraphrase, “the government needs to do much more than promising to arrest the culprits and condemning the act.”

Attah urged state security agencies to step up their intelligence gathering, saying that criminals aren’t aliens because they live among us.

Attah has stated that he will not stop pushing for a “viable and vibrant local government system” because the governor and the state cannot solve the problem of kidnapping that is plaguing communities across the state on their own.

Attah says, “Beyond what is reported at the state capital and its environs, the level of kidnapping going on in the rural areas is an unmitigated catastrophe.”